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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24059191">Sand And Cat Fur On The Rug</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Le_purple/pseuds/Le_purple'>Le_purple</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Homestuck</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Regency, Alternate Universe - Victorian, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Egyptian Literature &amp; Mythology, Archaeology, Bad Puns, Edwardian Period, Egyptology, F/F, Fluff, Humanstuck, Mummies, One Shot, Painting, Rare Pairings, Tea, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Useless Lesbians, ambiguous historical period</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 18:28:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,409</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24059191</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Le_purple/pseuds/Le_purple</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Aradia is back from her expeditions in Egypt, and has got a present for her lover, Nepeta.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Nepeta Leijon/Aradia Megido</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Sand And Cat Fur On The Rug</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There was a knock on Nepeta's drawing room door, the woman sighing a 'come in' and setting down her teacup.</p>
<p>"Nepeta!" A voice yelled happily, the door bursting open and a woman excitedly thundering in.</p>
<p>"Aradia?!"</p>
<p>Nepeta could barely even stand up before being tackled back down into her chair by a giggling, leather jacket clad woman, planting dozens of kisses on her cheek, neck and wherever else she could, making Nepeta giggle along with her. She pulled back and Nepeta could finally see her face, skin sun-kissed from Egypt, red painted lips stretched into her usual ear-to-ear smile, and her thick, shiny black curls tied back into a messy ponytail, with more than a few wily strands escaping.</p>
<p>"Aradia! *AC is overjoyed to see her lover again!!!*" She chirped, tucking her hair behind her ear and idly wiping off the lipstick on her cheeks. "Oh my gosh, if you wrote I would've met you at the docks, or took the train or-or-" Aradia put her finger against Nepeta's lips.</p>
<p>"Shh. I wanted it to be surprise, love."</p>
<p>Aradia scooped a cat off of the chair opposite to Nepeta and sat down, her long black skirt covering most of the seat like a waterfall. She leaned forwards and poured herself a cup of tea from the ever present teapot.</p>
<p>"Ooh, earl grey." She noted.</p>
<p>"I don't want to talk about tea!" Nepeta burst. "How was Egypt? Did you find anything? I demand stories Aradia!"</p>
<p>"Egypt was great!" Aradia sighed happily "There's so much history, an ancient writing system I can barely get my head around, and so many strange myths and-they have an ancient religion which is completely different to anything I've ever seen, it's almost alien!"</p>
<p>"Yeah?"</p>
<p>"Their gods have animal heads! It's fascinating!"</p>
<p>"Animal heads? Do th-"</p>
<p>"Yep! Her name is Bastet, and she's a warrior goddess of protection, and cats. Actually, cats are pretty important in Egyptian mythos, hell, they even buried their cats with them!"</p>
<p>"I would never bury my kitties with me," She said, leaning over the side of her chair to pet a white cat who happened to be sleeping next to her. "I would let them eat me, and then you can keep my bones, and my babies."</p>
<p>"Oh! Speaking of bones:" Nepeta smiled lovingly, knowing that once Aradia begun on bones she wouldn't stop, especially with the way her dark eyes glistened. "The way ancient Egyptians treated their dead is incredible. They would 'mummify' them, pulling out all of their organs and drying them out before putting them in ceremonial jars. They would stuff their bodies with linen after washing them out with wine and herbs and then bury them in salt to dry them out! After that the body would be wrapped up in linen bandages and buried with all sorts of treasures, of course they would only do this to the rich, but the peasants bodies would just be mummified in the sand anyway because of how hot and dry it was. I actually went to a mummy <i>unwrapping</i>, several actually, and I even took part in one!"</p>
<p>"Wow...was it fun? It sounds kinda stinky."</p>
<p>"No stinkier than any other corpse I've found. Although, there was one which had been left in my affiliates humid tent too long, and after a few days it was crawling with <i>maggots</i>." Aradia dramatised, standing up and getting close to Nepeta's face, wriggling her fingers and making Nepeta laugh.</p>
<p>"God that sounds so fun! I wish I could go on one of your trips with you, or at least go back to my fathers house in Greece or my mothers in France, England is so <i>boring</i>." Nepeta lamented dramatically, sprawling across her chair until her upside down head tilted off the arm of the chair, Aradia taking the opportunity to kiss the girl on the forehead.</p>
<p>"Well, my work, it's mostly digging through hot sand, but I <i>have</i> brought a little of Egypt back with me."</p>
<p>"*GASP* What is it? Sand? A cool bug? A skull???" Nepeta practically fell off of her chair.</p>
<p>"Pshh, not quite. It's something useful, something more...<i>palette-able</i>????????"</p>
<p>"......*AC refuses to eat a corpse.*"</p>
<p>"Nononono-I've tried eating mummies and its like dusty jerky, which is what I eat on expeditions anyway." Aradia pulled a jar out of her satchel. "THIS, is so much better!"</p>
<p>She handed Nepeta the jar. The rim was speckled with grains of sand and the old jar was filled with a viscous brown liquid, the sides streaked with the semi-opaque pigment.</p>
<p>"*AC refuses to eat poop.*"</p>
<p>"Not poop, <i>paint</i>. Go ahead and smell it."</p>
<p>Hesitantly, Nepeta unscrewed the rusty lid with a squeak and lifted the jar up to her nose, taking in a small sniff and finding that it wasn't nearly as bad as she thought it would be. It had a fusty, old scent, like an attic that had never been cleaned, but also a stony, earthy smell with some kind of herb, like the incense Aradia had brought back on a number of trips.</p>
<p>"So it's...paint?"</p>
<p>"Yep! So, get it? <i>palette</i>-able? Like a paint palette?"</p>
<p>"You have been waiting every day of the last 6 months to say that pun."</p>
<p>"Yep! What do you think of the paint?"</p>
<p>"*AC is curious as to what this paint contains.*"</p>
<p>"Myrrh, oil, white pitch, mummy parts,-"</p>
<p>"Mummy parts?!"</p>
<p>"Mhmm!" Aradia chirped proudly.</p>
<p>"Aren't they like...rare? I mean there can't be that many-"</p>
<p>"We actually struck a gold mine of mummies! There are so many that you could fill every exhibit of every museum in the world and still have some spare! People are using them as <i>firewood</i> there's so many."</p>
<p>"Isn't that kinda wasteful?"</p>
<p>"Yeah, it is. I don't really agree with a lot of the uses because, we are going to run out at some point, and I really hope that when we do we haven't eaten all of them. But, I <i>did</i> want to get you a present that wasn't just sand. You could use it in your cat paintings!"</p>
<p>"Well, *AC is very happy with the gift! And she must try it as soon as she can!*"</p>
<p>Nepeta stood up and rushed over to a set of drawers, rummaging around until she grabbed a scrap of paper before quickly returning to her seat and slamming it town. She smoothed the paper over the table and dipped her finger into the viscous paint, wiping the excess on the inside of the rim before taking it to the paper. It was fairly dark when first applied, but as she streaked her fingertip across the paper it thinned out and lightened, the grainy paint spreading out into a muddy, tea-stain colour.</p>
<p>"Woah, it's....nice! I didn't expect it to look this good." She commented, swirling her finger around on the paper. "I like the tea-stain effect."</p>
<p>"I'm glad you like it!" Aradia chirped giddily. "I don't get the appeal, but I'm glad you like it."</p>
<p>"So how long are you staying this time?" Nepeta asked, nonchalantly wiping her finger on a handkerchief.</p>
<p>"Hmm...I <i>do</i> have to get back to Egypt soon. Not only for research and to stock up the museum, but because all of my associates and funding bodies are useless with a trowel. Jake is nice, and fun to talk to, but he doesn't have a lot of patience when it comes to new discoveries."</p>
<p>"Oh, well, you're not going to go <i>too</i> soon, are you? *AC flops her ears and gives Aradia big kitty eyes. She still wants to talk, and hear more about Egypt and-*"</p>
<p>Aradia leaned in and kissed Nepeta on the lips, the kiss much warmer and more intimate than the other dozen, still marked on her cheeks and forehead with streaks of red lipstick.</p>
<p>"I'll stay for the week, love."</p>
<p>"A-*AC i-is um-" Nepeta squeaked.</p>
<p>"Happy?"</p>
<p>"Very!"</p>
<p>Aradia smiled.</p>
<p>"D-do you wanna hunt together? I bet I could kill the badger who dug up Mewtiny with my bare hands! And you could steal its bones!" Nepeta proposed, standing up and stepping past the cats to the door. "Or we could brush each others hair and gossip, or just talk about whatever, or I could show you the kittens I'm going to give to Roxy, and the accompanying kitten paintings I made!"</p>
<p>"I'm ok with anything," Aradia chuckled, holding the door open for a very enthusiastic Nepeta. "I've just been missing you, love."</p>
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